Phoebe Lettice has collaborated with Illustrated People to create a collection born from a desire for girly clothing with a boyish silhouette and a love of all things Japanese
Born from a love of Japanese culture, ’90s nostalgia and androgynous shapes, photographer, stylist and designer Phoebe Lettice, has collaborated with East London clothing brand Illustrated People to create a most covetable collection of womens street wear.
Seeing the entire process through from start to finish, Phoebe not only designed the collection but also styled, photographed and cast the campaign herself. “It has been my life for the last six months,” says Phoebe. “But the core two months leading up to the campaign, I was prepping like mad, calling things in way in advance! I had a huge team working on it, so trying to nail this all in one day with three models and four hair stylists was nuts.”
Launching exclusively on Wonderland today, we see the campaign video that features the twenty-two piece collection in all its pastel-punk, platform-booted, crop top suited glory. Think sporty silhouettes, eyeball motifs, cartoon dinosaurs and models with badass braids and chola curls. We caught up with Phoebe to hear about the collection first hand…
So what was the initial starting point for the collaboration?
It’s a Japanese Kawaii based theme. I’ve always loved Japan and Harajuku girls, especially when Gwen Steffani brought out L.A.M.B. For me, that was amazing so it stuck with me. It’s always been a topic I’ve wanted to pursue, but I had never had the right opportunity or output, so when I had the chance to do this with Illustrated People I already knew what I wanted to do before they offered me a design role.
So has Illustrated People always been a brand close to your heart?
Yeah I would say so, I came across them a while back when I was looking for interesting things to wear and they had some really funny slogan t-shirts. I had borrowed things off them for shoots too so I’ve always had a nice relationship with them and I respect them. They are such a small team. It’s a great place to be.
What about the collection, what shapes can we expect to see?
Well I went in knowing the theme but I also knew the shape I wanted to create. Basketball style shorts and hip hop style t-shirt’s for girls. It was something that I was looking for all last summer. I managed to find a pair from Londsdale and a pair from Sandro and I wore them all summer with my boyfriend’s t-shirts, but I could never find ones with garish prints or any matching sets. So that was what I wanted to do.
There’s a dress, some mini-skirts and then we have the polo crops. They’re inspired by the opening scene in Bully, the one where she’s wearing this really high cropped polo top and her tits are hanging out underneath. That was exactly what I wanted to do! Obviously you can’t show that in lookbooks, but that was the idea. A shorter style crop with the under-boob. I love that.
Sounds amazing! Lastly, if you could dress someone in this collection, alive or dead, who would it be?
For me it has to be someone badass, in the non cringe-iest way, a really strong girl. I was casting on a budget, it wasn’t like I could pick someone and just fly them over. So I wanted attitude, someone who was hot but looked like they could kick the shit out of you as well. I guess someone like Jordan Dunn, Iggy Azelia, Angel Haze. Just really tough girls. Some of the pieces are so pastel-y and girly, so I like paring them with a strong girl.
The collection will be available to buy from IllustratedPeople.com from 26th May 2014.
Words: Brooke McCord
